Thin veneer stone is often used as a facing on buildings such as homes and office buildings or in landscaping. A facing made of thin veneer stone may give the appearance of a stone structure such as a wall. The thin veneer stone facing may have an outer decorative side that may be rough hewn or natural in appearance. However, a facing made of thin veneer stone may have advantages over a facing made of full size stones. For example, the thin veneer stone may be lighter, making the materials used in a thin veneer stone facing easier to handle and transport than full-sized stones. The thin veneer stones may also be less expensive to transport to a construction site.
Thin veneer stone may be produced by cutting thin sections from stone blocks with a stone saw. A typical method used to saw a thin veneer section from a stone block is to place the stone block on a flat conveyor and convey the stone block through a single blade sawing station. The single saw blade may be disposed to cut through the entirety of the stone. However, this may result in the saw blade cutting into the surface of the conveyor as it is attempted to cut through the entirety of the stone block. The resulting damage to the conveyor may require the stone saw to be removed from the production flow while the conveyor is repaired or replaced.
A single-blade stone saw may also experience a slowing of the saw blade below a desirable rate of rotation when sawing larger stones. The slowing may be due to the larger contact area between the single saw blade and the stone resulting in increased friction between the single saw blade and the stone being cut. There may be related motor overloading issues where the single saw blade is being rotated by an electric motor when cutting larger stones.
Thin veneer stone saws require frequent saw blade replacement. When a saw blade becomes unusable due to, for example, wear or damage, the stone saw must be shut down while the saw blade is replaced. The saw blade replacement procedure may typically take from 45 to 120 minutes to compete. During this time, the veneer stone saw is incapable of producing thin veneer stone. Such delays may result in idle personnel while the saw blade is being replaced, loss of productivity, not reaching production goals, and/or missing delivery schedules.